Gods kicking the bucket in scores?!

[Innocence]

Hey

Playing the walkthru "tutorial" (excellent one btw.) and finally got enough forces to lay siege to Ulm's home province, which is also his Last. After 3-4 turns I get the message that the wall has been breached and that I may storm the castle. Not being absolutely sure how strong a breached castle containing the God of Ulm is, I delay storming and move in more forces.
Next turn I get the message that the God of Ulm is dead (something like "in the end he had no land etc."), without any battle? Next turn I storm the castle and get a note that it was empty and taken without a fight.
During the following three turns two more Gods go belly up - one is south of my position (Melk-something) and when I send in a scout it turns out that all his land (he had 5 provinces left IIRC) have become independant - not a trace of the God and he was there in force only a few turns earlier!?
So what's going on here? I mean, I sometimes quit games when things are hopeless, but I've never seen an AI do the same thing. What's next? Will the AI reload Last turn if things are not going their way?
Oh while I'm at it: This is the most addictive game I've played since Stars!, Civ1 and Master of Magic